By Leah Murray

Naming rights expected to generate city revenue

Sep 27, 2017 | 5:43 PM

MEDICINE HAT, AB. — Faced with a big hole in the budget due to declining energy dividends, the City of Medicine Hat is looking to sell naming rights, sponsorships and advertising on various recreation facilities in the city.

This includes leisure trails, ball diamonds, soccer pitches, tennis courts, playgrounds, swimming pools, ice arenas and the Family Leisure Centre’s fieldhouse.

“It’s done in other communities and it’s basically to get operational revenue for all our facilities,” said Mayor Ted Clugston.

The city said it commissioned a report on what kind of revenue could be generated from naming rights, sponsorship and advertising.

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Though the report has not been made public, the city said it shows a definite profitability, but they won’t say how much money the initiative could generate.

“We don’t want to limit ourselves to what that valuation list says,” said Todd Sharpe, general manager of the city’s parks and recreation department. “We want to make sure we can individualize the partnership.”

Local brand strategist Kurtis Albers said this could be a great opportunity for local businesses to promote themselves.

“I do believe though there’s opportunity for small and medium sized businesses, it all depends on how you’re going to allocate your marketing dollars,” he said. “I think the return on investment is there with this initiative.”

The city emphasizes this is an opportunity for all businesses and not just big corporations.

“This isn’t just for big companies with deep pockets, we can customize a partnership with anyone and try to align it with what their budget is,” said Sharpe.

The city is taking non-binding expression of Interest submissions until 2 p.m. on October 17th.

-With files from Brian Konrad